For the last meal of the Home Grown September Challenge we had roast lamb slathered in a yogurt, lavender and garlic paste. Roasted baby pumpkin, roasted beets, roasted shallots tossed in rosemary and hot butter and a huge green salad with an olive oil, cider vinegar and fresh rosemary dressing. All home grown.
Today the last of the lamb will be ground up and made into Lamb rissoles served with a green salad. So October 1st will be all home grown as well.
In fact I could go on eating straight from the farm and will. If I had to eat only what I can grow I would not be hungry. But there were some things I missed.
This is the sun rising over the corn this morning. Into the fog.
I longed for nuts, seeds, oats, lemons, avocadoes, oranges, bought cheeses (though I made fresh cheese) , chick peas, deep red kidney beans, fish, cured meats (something we are going to learn this winter) , the store bought organic greek yoghurt with honey (my weakness) and store bought spaghetti (I can make pasta for just about everything except spaghetti).
Tui flying out of the barn yesterday morning.
And really that is about all. Oh and frozen peas. I love frozen peas. So on my shopping list this week is nothing. Because I have most of these things in my pantry and freezer anyway and piles of all the usual in the garden. We are having a lovely long summer – food is still growing.
Mostly I have learnt how little we actually do need. Plus if I really have to try and use what we have on hand and not waste any of it, I find I am a better cook. Though my list of ingredients was shorter, my list of meals was much more diverse and interesting. I did go through periods of frustration but by the end of the month I was just rocking along. Of course I ate out with the family when they went out. And I would stare longingly at the frozen peas in the freezer wishing to cheat. But all in all the month of eating only what I can grow was remarkably satisfying. Now if I had said I will only DRINK what I can grow there may have been trouble.
Daisy scratching an itch on her favourite scratching post.
The greatest lesson is to stop being fancy in the garden and to grow the staples. Lots of them. Potatoes, garlic, cabbages and onions particularly. Just get down and do the work, early in the season. Plant ’til it hurts.
And I know for sure now, that there is very little that I need from the supermarket. Though there are some things that I want. But you can’t always get what you want!
Mouse told me yesterday that when she was small her Dad hung sacks out for the cows to wipe their faces through, dislodging flies. After all they cannot reach their faces with their tails. She described this as like hanging washing on a line. Maybe I was going at it wrong, I thought and rehung my burlap coffee sacks in the tree like tea towels, then dropped a little DE into the base.
When I came back from the feed store – look who I found enjoying the sacks. And not a fly on her face. Just before this Daisy had been standing with her head on the sack just to the left of Queenie. Voila!
What an outstanding idea. Thank you Mouse. I will be doing this for years to come. Just as long as Sheila does not find them!
Good morning. I hope we get clear skies this October, I am looking forward to some star gazing shots and the Night Sky Challenge. I hope you can take some too, or draw them, or make poems and stories about them or simply say “The stars were beautiful last night.” We will all be looking at the same moon. What a lovely thought. Our sky. No rules though. I had enough rules in September!
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
90 responses to “The Last of September – What I learnt from the Challenge.”
Wow I am amazed by what I learn each day I am able to catch up on all my favorite bloggers you are all so amazing!
Love the shots!
By now I think you’ve enjoyed your October 1st meals, Celi, but I had to see how you wrapped up September, even if it was necessary for me to arrive a little late. 🙂 Your “last” meal sounds better than average by far! I think we could all learn from you that planning, in all directions, is really key if we want to live responsibly. Loved this!
Planning is a lot of it, certainly when making food from its beginnings.. c
Brilliant first tree pictures!
Well, you learned what you could manage and where you could improve in your Challenge and you taught us too! Want to try your lamb marinade: have not used lavender ~ that would give an extra piquancy to the dish! Love the Daisy photos: so comfortably scratching an itch and being a fast learner re those pesky flies!! And that beautfiul morning photo and trust you to catch Tui in flight . . . thank you as ever . . . [you being in the country am wondering what cured meats would be locally available . . .?]
only the bog standard hard salami or pepperoni, in the city there is a bigger selection of course. John wants to start with salt curing a ham.. It will be interesting! c
Good luck and lots of success with that! I love the Swiss/Italian kind of dry ones, but I guess you have to be high and dry in the mountains for the process to be possible?
Hi Celi
I thought of you today when I was grocery shopping and looking at all the myriad mounds of frozen dinners and piles of processed food….I headed straight to the produce aisle, and thankfully, my grocer does have a lot of home community grown produce! I am lucky in that. But I do want to share with you a very simple but truly delectable dish…..I lightly boiled some fresh tiny new potatoes, unpeeled, ….barely steamed some asparagus……then combined the potatoes, roughly chopped with the asparagus, some sea salt, ground pepper, a dot of butter , a drizzle of good EVOO and ………oh my, it was so good!! A perfect meal with some fresh ciabatta rolls, warm and slathered with butter, and fresh radishes, dipped in sea salt! I may become a vegetarian after such an enjoyment! LOL! 🙂
Oh that sounds like my kind of meal. fresh vegetables are good.. you must have a great green grocer.. have a gorgeous day.. c
Wow…you have achieved the ultimate goal..you are self-sufficient!:-) Truly you deserve a pat on the back…
I feel satisfied, and elated along with you. To know that it is possible, do-able, and there are benefits of creative and pared back but delicious meals. To undertake a actual project by living it rather than in theory, really demonstrates the proof of the pudding is in the eating… oh, I am still thinking of that wonderful yellow custard and apple pie 🙂
I must make that again, it was a delicious as it was beautiful.. c
Enjoy your rule-free October. It was such an interesting September challenge, and has highlighted the foods you miss. I’d be the same. In fact, you’ve reminded me how handy frozen peas are – not something I’ve bought for ages. I’m going out to get some!
Maybe there should be an indulgence day once every 2 (?) weeks, as a reward for being self-sufficient on the rest of the days.
Sometimes I go out to dinner just so someone else can do the dishes! That is pretty indulgent.. c
Ooh yes!
The towels look to be appreciated. 🙂 I’m glad you learned much from your September challenge.
I’m forwarding this blog to my daughter in the hope that the sacks might work on horses as well as cattle. Her two horses are always battling with flies. One of them now wears a complete mesh mask. By the way, I grew two tomato plants which have born fruit. This is the first food that I have ever grown….that’s a bit of a lie as the my farmer neighbour saw what I was doing with the plants, took them away to his potagere, nourished them, and now I’m saying that I grew them:)
I love your farmer neighbour, is he the same fellow with the cellar that you stumble home from every now and then? Tomatoes from your own plants are always tastier. i bet you grow your herbs though? c
That is such an incredible shot of Tui in flight but Daisy & Queenie absolutely crack me up. I know I’ve come up with some unique ways of scratching an itch when my hands are full. I wonder what my neighbors would think when I go for a walk with a burlap bag during deer fly season.
Hee hee! Thinking about it too! 🙂
I’m picturing maybe cutting out 2 eye holes & 1 for my nose then wearing the bag over my head. Thing is my neighbors wouldn’t even blink – just say “oh yeah, that’s just Diane under there”.
Those hanging sacks are a great idea!!! I wonder if it would work with horses? Hmmmmm…….
Also….loved that fantastic shot of Tui flying out of the barn!!!!!
I am very interested in how the hams turn out! Hope there will be photos!
You feast like kings! 🙂
Oh dear Celi, this burlap is amazing solution and I haven’t known, how could I know, even you learned new, but this is amazing… I saw in your last post how slowly passing our lovely Daisy… 🙂 Your writing made me excited again 🙂 I really missed you. Thank you, love, nia